Parajanov, Ukrainian Rhapsody, 1961. Andriesh, 1954

Ukrainian Rhapsody
(image source: Film Affinity)
no copyright infringement intended

an early film by Sergei Parajanov and there can't be many films with more contrast between script and direction. The script is a banal pile of clichés, but it is filmed with sumptuous, leisured joy in vision and visual effects, often showing what Parajanov would do later- an overhead shot of the escaped Anton stumbling into a church, or soldiers in a destroyed theatre listening to The Moonlight Sonata and long shots tracking characters. There is a continual clash between the unreality of genre and the non-realism Parajanov adopted later (allenrogerj, All them corn fields and ballet in the evening)

Ukrainian Rhapsody, 1961
(video by sylax)

Parajanov became Parajanov, one of the happy few in film history, with Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, made in 1965. Yet, it was not his first movie (rather the ninth). And it is worth trying to find in his earlier films the lion's claw, the signs of his genius. Ukrainian Rhapsody is a story of love resilience having the war as its background, while the war image is penetrated with classical music and religious symbols. After all, here in the Ukrainian Rhapsody the story is about the resilience of art and spirituality, along with love, in the extreme conditions of the war.

Now, speaking of Parajanov's early movies, here's a very small fragment from Andriesh, made in 1954: the tale of the young shepherd Andriesh, who dreamed of becoming a knight, the magic flute that the hero Vainov gave him, and the fight against the evil wizard Black Whirlwind, who hates everything living (wiki). And I would love to have the opportunity to watch the whole movie, as it could demonstrate that from the very beginning Parajanov was deeply interested in the traditional culture, in all its dimensions (here in Andriesh in the univers of fairy tales), as a way to understand the human identity. You are what your fairy tales and your legends say that you are (and generally the traditions coming from your ancestors).

Andriesh, 1954
(video by Andrei Cebotari)

(Parajanov)